We Make Mayhem [boyxboy]

Chapter Thirty

I waited for Chloe, my legs feeling like jelly. I had tossed and turned all night, thinking it over, and I still didn't know if I was making a mistake. That bothered me, but I felt like I was going to worry myself to death over this.

Chloe let herself into the studio promptly at 7:45. She still looked like half a mess: hair in a rumpled bun, no makeup, sweatpants and an oversized sweater. But her eyes were bright and alert. She sat down in Josiah's chair. I couldn't look at her, so I toyed with the dials and faders on the soundboard.

"I think you might be the only person I can talk to about something," I said. "I don't want to worry Noah, and nobody else will be of any help."

"What is it?"

"You have to swear you'll keep it a secret. I'm life-or-death fucking serious."

She offered her pinkie. I crooked mine in hers.

"Last week, I was contacted by the WIA," I said. "They're interested in Decker Lord. They want me to spy on him."

Her reaction was nowhere near what I was expecting. She leaned back in her seat and exhaled as though she'd been holding her breath for years.

"Oh my God, Riley," she said. "You have no idea how fucked up I've been over this. They asked me, too. Ages ago."

"What?"

She nodded. "About a month into our podcast, they approached me. They basically guided all my research for the show after that. They told me what topics to cover, what leads to follow, to try to get Lord to come out of his shell. They wanted to work the media to see if they could get Lord to reveal more about his technology. God, Riley, it feels amazing to finally talk about this!"

I was too stunned to speak for a good couple seconds.

"So... they were using us all that time?"

"They were helping us, really."

She would think of it like that.

"Ms. Warren actually came to me when you and Noah started to get close. She asked if you might work for them. I got angry when she insinuated that he might be your Temptr match." She snorted. "I kicked her out of my house. I should've listened. Would've saved me some heartache."

She was smiling ruefully, but she didn't look quite so hurt anymore. She looked... resigned. Resolved. Accepting.

"Since when you do you put any stock in Temptr matches?" I teased gently.

She slowly twirled a lock of hair around her finger. She didn't reply for so long I thought maybe she didn't hear me. Then she said, "Riley, I've always known it's real."

Wait. "What?"

"I was skeptical at first, when it first came out and everyone was gushing about how amazing it was, but it didn't take long for curiosity to get the better of me."

"You... you downloaded it? You used it?"

Chloe nodded. "I was so sure it was going to be you. I was a hundred percent sure you and I were, like, the ultimate. But, clearly..."

Holy. Shit.

A thousand thoughts battled in my head. Chief among them were "Chloe lied, big time" and "Chloe Jensen is the biggest hypocrite on the face of the planet," but there was a big part of me that was happy. Chloe had a perfect match, somewhere out there. If she could be with them, she could feel what I feel, every time I look at Noah. I wanted that for her so badly.

But she didn't look happy at all. She shook her head, in disbelief and frustration and exhaustion.

"Listen to me, making this all about me," she said. "You asked me to meet you to talk about the WIA shit and here I am, turning it into something about me. They want you to spy on Decker Lord?"

"We're coming back to your thing," I said, "but yeah. They want me to record every conversation with him."

"Have you met him yet?"

"Yeah, last night. I left my phone in Noah's car, though. When I got home Ms. Warren was waiting for me like a total stalker, asking why I hadn't logged a recording. I know you hate him, but that family loves each other so fucking much. I'm going there for dinner on Thursday, but I don't think I can secretly record my boyfriend's dad, no matter who he is."

Just a few weeks ago, Chloe would have spat venom at the mere suggestion that Decker Lord was human. Now, she said, "I don't hate him."

"You certainly had me convinced."

"I... embellished my anger sometimes," she said slowly. "That was part of the WIA's plan. I wouldn't be credible as an adversary if I wasn't fiery."

That stunned me more than Chloe downloading Temptr.

"Damn," he said. "I mean... you should get into acting."

She smiled. "I was angry, but not because he was a fraudster. The opposite. I was angry because he showed me what I already knew was true, but was afraid of more than anything."

"So you knew? Before Temptr told you, you already knew that person was the one?"

"Yes."

"Me, too. I didn't need Temptr to know about Noah." I paused. "If you knew about your match, why were you ever with me?"

Chloe glanced at her phone. "The bell's going to ring soon."

"I don't care. I can get us passes. I'll say we were working on a podcast. Please."

"Fine." She swiped at her eyes. "I was with you for a thousand reasons. I liked you. I loved you, in a way. You were the right person for me, you know? The responsible, good boy next door. My match... being with him makes me look like someone I don't want to be."

"Whoever it is, you're made for each other. You're not going to give a shit what anyone else thinks, trust me. Let me tell you, being with Noah is... it's beyond words. I can't even explain it, how freeing it is to feel like you're with someone you were meant to be with. You can have that!"

"No, I can't," she whispered.

"You can. They're yours, Chloe. Who they are isn't going to matter, nothing else is going to matter once you're face-to-face with them. All you have to do is go be with them."

"I can never be with him, Riley."

I remembered an op-ed by an anonymous woman who found out her match was a serial killer on death row, and a distraught man who wrote to an advice columnist because he had just found out his match had terminal cancer and only had weeks to live. Chloe had a look in her eye that told me she felt the same devastation they did.

"You look like you need to tell someone," I said.

She nodded, shaking a few tears down her cheeks. I scrounged for the box of tissues I knew was somewhere in the mess of papers on my desk and handed it to her.

"You can't tell anyone," she said.

"I'll take it to the grave if you want me to."

She mopped up her tears and crushed the tissue in her fist until her knuckles turned white. She took a deep breath and said, "Riley, it's your dad."